1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a method of preparing an ester compound, and more particularly, to a method of preparing an ester compound, which may increase the reaction yield using sonication and enables the preparation process to be simplified.
2. Description of the Related Art
Ester refers to a compound produced by a condensation reaction between an alcohol and an acid while eliminating water, and mainly indicates carboxylic acid ester.
Conventional preparation of such an ester compound includes synthesis of an ester compound via two-step esterification comprising adding acetone and sulfuric acid to glycerol to give a product and reacting the product with formic acid, as disclosed in Yong Wang, Bilal A. Aleiwi, Qinghui Wang and Michio Kurosu. Selective esterifications of primary alcohols in a water-containing solvent. Org. Lett., 2012, 14 (18), pp 4910-4913.
However, the conventional method is problematic because the esterification reaction is not high in yield and is carried out via two steps, thus requiring additional process equipment and increasing the synthesis time of the ester compound, undesirably resulting in low profitability.
Accordingly, there is a need for research into novel ester compound synthesis methods able to directly synthesize an ester compound from glycerol by increasing the yield of esterification reaction and simplifying the preparation process.